I baked fasting pies yesterday with spinach in the oven. I added some butter, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice, let them sit for an hour, and they came out very tender and delicious. My wife said we should make them next week.

Yesterday I lit a candle for Saint Nicholas on behalf of my old friend Ion, who has been gone for two years now. We knew each other back when we used to go fishing together on the shores of Bahlui and talked about everything, from family to services. True friendship lasts even after one is no longer here, at least through prayer.

Choir practice ran late last night but it was worth it. We spent most of the time on the new setup for the Demetrius Saturday memorial service this weekend, and my voice actually held up for once. On the way home I told the girls we’ll probably have koliva at coffee hour after, so they already started arguing about who gets the walnuts on top.

The Serbian Orthodox Church marked 170 years of continuous worship at the historic church in Peraš with a solemn Liturgy attended by hundreds of local families. In the same week, the Romanian Orthodox Church reburied the remains of priest Nicolae Gherman at Rohia Monastery so that he could rest on the ground that shaped his ministry. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church prayed a pannikhida for departed clergy and benefactors of the Sofia diocese, while the Orthodox Church in America installed a new team to lead youth and young adult ministry in the Archdiocese of Washington. These quiet milestones show how each local Church tends its own corner of the vineyard without fanfare. May God grant the Serbian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and American communities strength and peace in the year ahead.

Three post-Byzantine churches in Greek Thrace have been formally returned to the Church of Greece after years of state ownership. Local clergy and faithful gathered for the first liturgies in the restored buildings, which date from the 16th and 17th centuries and carry fresco fragments and carved wooden iconostases. In the same week the Romanian Orthodox Church opened new parishes in eastern Germany, now grouped into two deaneries that will serve scattered communities from Rostock to Dresden. The Serbian Orthodox Church received a message of sympathy from Patriarch Porphyry to Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem following the recent loss of a senior hierarch. Meanwhile the Bulgarian Orthodox Church asked for prayers for Metropolitan Gavriil, who remains in serious condition in Sofia. May the Lord grant strength and steady growth to these communities in Thrace, Germany, Serbia and Bulgaria.

The Church of Cyprus Synod has fixed the election date for the new Metropolitan of Paphos, moving forward after the recent vacancy in the ancient see. In Romania, Bishop Siluan of Orhei received elevation to Archbishop, while a Romanian priest in Chile described years of patient preparation before baptizing a Swedish mother and her son. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church held a panikhida for departed clergy, workers, and founders of the Sofia diocese, and Metropolitan Gavriil remains in serious condition at the military hospital. From the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the old complex of the Orthodox Academy of Crete was formally inaugurated. These ordinary steps of succession, remembrance, and quiet missionary work continue across jurisdictions without fanfare.

During the week of service, “He eats with dignity” keeps ringing in our minds. We love Tozi Tropar from Godini, especially for someone we sing loudly and calmly. Kara me da si remember how Mike mi go peeshe vkashchi, dokato cleaner, and now and az go tananikam in the bus on the rotation from the gradinata.

Father Dimitri's mother, old Nino, told me yesterday evening that before going to liturgy I should always draw two crosses - one when leaving the house and the other when entering the church. It's a simple thing, but since then I've been doing it every day. Today is also Demetrius' Sabbath, so I get up early and we go with my family.